Jamali Maddix is back in action and standing on business as Never Mind The Buzzcocks returns – continuing his reign as a regular panellist on the musical gameshow.
Alongside Noel Fielding and Sophie Willan, Jamali has never failed to bring the chaos – either from his absent knowledge or his unique frenemyship with host Greg Davies
As the series returns, Jamali talks about the show’s legacy, what it’s like to be back, and how fans have reacted to him living with his mum…
How does it feel to be back for season five?
Yeah, it's good, man. It's good. It's definitely a highlight of my year to come do it.
You’ve said before the filming fits around your touring well. Have you noticed more Buzzcocks fans coming to your gigs?
Yeah, I've been getting a lot of Buzzcocks people coming to the tours. I've been getting heckled a lot with “Do you live at home with your mum still?”
There’s a packed guest list for this season. Was there anyone you really enjoyed being on?
Do you know what? They all blend into one after a while. So it's hard to think of anyone from this series or even the last five series. We got Tinie Tempah on this year…. He was cool. And Tom Grennan, too. He put on a good show. Jessie J too. There’s been a lot of cool people to be fair.
Speaking of cool people, Sophie Willan is back after her run as Guest Captain last series. Are you glad to see her back?
Yeah, course, man. Love Sophie. It was really good to see her back. It'd be mad if I said “Nah!” I'd be like, “I f*g hated it.” I would be livid. It would have made for an interesting interview.
On that note, word has it you’ve got an ongoing beef with Greg…
I won't say beef. It's just … do you know what? He gives it the bigguns. He's just got a bit too much jip for my liking. People think it’s a kind of rivalry hanging over since Taskmaster, but I think it’s been going on before we even knew each of us existed. From the dawn of time.
The theme episodes are back – a couple of them lean into the nostalgia for the 1990s that’s prevalent today. Do you have any fond memories of that decade?
I was born in 1991, so I can’t say I was doing Ecky’s listening to Oasis…
You weren’t tempted to join the crowds for the Oasis reunion?
I would have only gone for Wonderwall. The moment that song finished, I would have been straight out of there.
Do you find yourself out of your depth when faced with those sorts of rounds?
Kind of. But it’s not a real game show so I don’t have to know that much. I never really feel like I need to look up the latest music or anything, I just turn up and try make it funny. There’s a lot of talent in the room you can just bounce off, so as long as one person knows what it’s all about music-wise you can feed off that.
Out of everyone on the Buzzcocks team, who do you reckon has the best music trivia skills?
I think Noel knows the most about music, to be fair. Then it goes Sophie, then me, then Greg.
In the Britpop vs Madchester special, we see the one and only Bez captain the Madchester team. How did that go?
Bez was all right, man. He was in good form. He was on good behaviour. Every time I meet Bez, I never know if he's going to remember me. And then he remembers. He weirdly remembers a lot about me. He’ll see me and go “Oh, how’s the house hunting guy?” And you go “S* that was three years ago I told you that!”
So how is the house hunting going?
Terribly. The market is absolutely crazy.
Did you chat to Tinie about it? He knows his way around the property market.
Ah, I should have asked him actually. But I doubt he’d be much help. The entire country is falling apart. I Don’t know if you’ve heard.
One thing that’s become clear over the years on Buzzcocks is some guests are a lot more competitive that others – last season Mel B looked about ready to come to blows… Was there anyone taking the game very seriously this series?
Noel’s been getting mad competitive. Sophie’s quite competitive. PinkPantheress was too. But no one was as bad as Mel B.
Can you give us a peek behind the curtain for the Intros round? Do you all decide beforehand who’ll be performing and who’ll be guessing?
So, they give us the songs, and we rehearse it before we go out. But as the show goes on, you forget how the songs go. I always forget. So generally, I’ll listen to it while I'm on set and then do it. It's a lot of information to remember, plus a beat, plus where you got to come in and stuff.
Do you prefer performing or guessing?
I prefer guessing. I'm not good at either. So, if I'm gonna have to do one, I might as well be sitting down.
And when it comes to the Identity Parade, do you go looking for tells or giveaways?
No, that one's usually a guess, really. If they say it's a band from the 80s and the guy looks 12, then mostly it's not going to be him. But really, that's just pure guessing.
If there were anyone alive or dead you could invite on the show, who would you pick?
That’s a great question. Do you know what? It would all be self-serving because it's just people I want to meet. It's not like I think that they'll make good telly. I just think I would want to meet them. So I'd have like Busta Rhymes. I think it would be good. I'd have like DMX. I would have like, do you know what, I'd have that Tourette guy, you know, the guy who left the show when it was on BBC.
Donny Tourette? You know that legendary episode also marked the first Buzzcocks appearance from Noel…
Was it? Man, what a great intro to the show. You gotta bring guys like that back. Not sure if anyone’s seen him since but you got to bring him back.